Development of Testing Equipment

Development of State-of-the-art tools & testing equipment for PV modules (indoor & outdoor)

The engineers of PI-Berlin constantly develop innovative diagnosis tools and measurement equipments such as: new tests beyond IEC, new materials, improved gel-content-analysis, peel-off tests, degradation tests, PID-tests

Our Ph.D students are investigating subjects such as:

PID - Potential induced degradation: analysis, reverse PID

Automated electroluminescence (EL) analysis: A powerful tool for the detection of invisible micro-cracks, shunts, soldering problems, impurities and moisture ingress.

Dynamic mechanical load tests, incl. EL: To evaluate effects of transportation, installation, wind etc.
Improved lightsoaking, beyond IEC 61646: For stabilization and measurement of power output of thin film modules (IEC 61646: Class C, PI-Berlin presently: Class B - heading for Class A).

Accurate performance measurements & improvements of tandem cell structures: Performance of tandem cells are very sensible to the actual spectrum - to improve performance a good matching of actual spectrum and combined spectral response both tandem components has to be achieved.

Power output & energy yield analysis: Constant improvement of measurement accuracy; long-term outdoor measurements; advanced energy yield prediction methods (including spectral effects, degradation, and regeneration) and calibration of instruments (irradiance, temperature).

Please find more details on our „Publications“ section.